this is a direct attack on a critical element of algeria's economy. i think as bill said a moment ago, the islamists have been present in algeria for some time. 20 years ago they won the elections there. the military had to come in to take over the government to prevent them from assuming power. this phenomenon didn't happen overnight. it has been building in the arab world. rise of fundamentalist islam, the rise of radical politicized islam. we've seen its manifestation in a number of different ways including al qaeda. but it is broad and it's deep and the idea we can simply say as we've done the past four years the on terror is over, al qaeda is defeated, we don't have to worry about it, we can cut our defense budget without limit, we're seeing right now, right in front of us the danger of this kind of thinking. martha: what should we do? you know, if americans are still being held and this is a very fuzzy situation right now what should the reaction be? >> i think we need to get some clarity what's going on the ground but i think what it also shows